Word: bolger
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...world has been through a period of hysterical excitements and stark realism," announced Musicomedy Dancer Ray Bolger, as quoted by rococo Litterateur Lucius Beebe. "Now it seems only natural that people should want a contrast to modernity and hysteria, and the placidity and ordered mannerisms of Victorianism supply that contrast...
...clock until nearly midnight, featured all of vaudeville's tried & true turns: a dog act, a comedy team of acrobats, tap and ballroom dancers, comedians, songbirds, straight men. Gus Van (of venerable Van & Schenck) did a tear-jerking ballad about the good old days; Ray Bolger danced a comic solo interpretation of the Joe Louis-Tony Galento fight; James (Tobacco Road) Barton played a drunk; Beatrice Lillie (who played the Palace in 1931 at $10,000 a week) sang There Are Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden...
...record makers mix propaganda for democracy and education (a selling point to parents) with their music. Decca's Churkendoose ("it was neither a turkey, a chicken, a duck nor a goose") with Comedian-Dancer Ray Bolger is a broad plea for racial tolerance. Capitol Records bound books inside its Bozo the Clown albums so that children could follow the narrative of Bozo's travels, get a rudimentary idea of geography. Bozo's sales: 1,000,000. Most of the companies are dead serious about their job as molders of the young mind. When a Columbia Records survey...
...Between Bolger, the audience was variously entertained by a melange of unrelated items, best of which was Brenda Forbes' side-splitting version of the libretto of "Dio Walkure." Kaye Ballard, appealing young newcomer, displayed a good talent for putting over a humorous song; she would go far if only she could muster enough volume for the gallery seats. Further time was killed in a tongue-in-cheek attempt to portray "The American Tragedy" via the R-H (Rodgers and Hammerstein) formula. Dreiser is already dead, but his estate might find grounds for some sort of lawsuit here...
With all due apology to Actors' Equity, there really wasn't any need for these other acts; the results would have been far happier if Bolger had been left alone. Currently, however, you can see just enough of him to make the evening worth the price of admission...